


Personal

by McKay



Category: Firefly
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-04
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-10-27 21:59:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10817583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/McKay/pseuds/McKay
Summary: There are things Jayne doesn't understand.





	Personal

**Author's Note:**

> Written in 2005.

Jayne was a simple man, more cunning than clever; he liked eating, sex, and fighting (not necessarily in that order), and subtlety was lost on him. He didn't understand why Mal felt betrayed any more than he understood why that young fellow had died for him in Jaynestown. For that matter, he didn't understand why Jaynestown existed; it was shiny that he had his own statue, but the idealism behind it escaped a pragmatist like him. It just didn't make sense.

He didn't understand why Mal was angry, only knew that Mal was, and even trying to explain it wasn't personal hadn't helped. "You betray anyone who's mine, and it's personal," Mal snapped, seeming just as frustrated that Jayne didn't understand. 

It was an honor thing, Jayne figured. Maybe a loyalty thing too, although Jayne only skirted the edges of understanding that concept. Loyalty to self was understandable; loyalty to others who weren't the highest bidder was a more murky concept, although Jayne had experienced a flash of enlightenment when he thought Mal might tell the rest of the crew what he'd done. 

In Jayne's world, there was Self, and there were Others, and Jayne didn't subscribe to the notion that the Others were to be viewed as an extension of the Self or to be protected like the Self, especially if there was a large sum of money involved. 

Mal, on the other hand, didn't seem to have that line of demarcation between himself and the Others on board Serenity. The Others were all a part of him, and a bullet in their arm was a bullet in his while Jayne always figured a bullet in their arm was better than a bullet in his and left it at that. 

There was an endless week of ice and an empty space on the other side of his bunk, but when Mal finally relented, Jayne found himself bent over a cargo crate, his toes curling and his fingers clenching and his face all red and sweaty as Mal took him rough and hard and fast just the way they both liked. They didn't kiss before, during or after, because Jayne thought only women were for kissing, but in the aftermath that was a relief of more than just the ache in his balls, Jayne wanted to kiss Mal, because somewhere along the line, the bullet in Mal's arm had become the bullet in his. 

Jayne was a simple man, and he didn't understand how or why it had happened, only that it had. It scared him a little, but there was safety in it too, because in spite of what he'd done, he was still Mal's, and it was still personal.


End file.
